1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an operation (e.g., hereinafter referred to as “Tune Start™”) of a broadcast or streamed content receiver that buffers content for a number of channels (e.g., preset channels or favorite channels) so that selecting one of these channels during real-time reception of the content allows the user to hear a currently or recently aired track (e.g., song, news segment, talk segment, and the like) on the selected channel from its beginning, instead of from the current real-time broadcast position which is typically in the midst of the track.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a radio receiver or other device capable of receiving multiple broadcast or streamed content channels, each channel can be modeled as a series of tracks. Since the content of the respective channels in broadcast or streamed content transmissions is programmed and then broadcast or streamed independently of other channels, the start and end of tracks on different channels are not synchronized in time. For example, the start of a song track on one channel can correspond to the middle of a song or news track on other channels. The boundary between the end of a talk radio track and start of an advertisement on one channel can correspond to the middle of a news track or song on other channels, since there is no intentional relationship between tracks on different channels in either content or timing.
In a typical use of a radio receiver capable of receiving multiple channels, a user may assign favorite channels to a set of preset channels, so a particular favorite channel can be quickly selected for live play by simply selecting a Preset button on the radio receiver that was previously assigned to the favorite channel. Often while listening to a channel (“current channel”) live, that is, while the broadcast channel is being received, the user may decide to sample the content on one of his favorite channels to determine if there is something more interesting on that favorite channel. For example, the current channel might be playing a song that the user is not interested in hearing, an advertisement on a news channel, disk jockey (DJ) banter, or a talk radio segment about a topic the user has no interest in. When selecting one of the other favorite channels via a Preset button, in most cases this selected channel (“new channel”) will be playing in the middle of a track (e.g. song, talk segment, advertisement, etc.). Although the new channel content may be of higher interest to the user than the current channel, the user almost invariably misses the beginning of the song or news/talk track playing on the new channel. As the user successively punches several Preset buttons looking for interesting content, he ultimately ends up listening to the “ends” of songs and news/talk tracks, particularly if he repeats the content search process at the end of each track.